Cedar Falls, Ia. – Mitt Romney continues to give mini history lessons to Iowans as he touts his campaign theme of an “opportunity society.”

Speaking to about 100 people packed into the J’s Homestyle Cooking café this morning, Romney harkened back to the men who wrote the Declaration of Independence. “They said that the Creator had endowed us with certain inalienable rights, among them life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” he said. “In this nation, we would be free to pursue happiness as we choose. It would not be settled for us by the circumstances of birth. It would not be settled by a government that told us what we can and cannot do, or where we can and cannot live. Instead, we would be free to pursue happiness in our own way.”

Those ideas led Americans to innovate, work hard and build a country whose average income is 50 percent higher than Europeans’, Romney said.

Romney, whose Republican campaign is focused on his past business successes, said President Obama seems to emulate Europe. Instead, Romney said, the president should do more to encourage what has historically made Americans more successful than Europeans, who now face a crippling debt crisis and high unemployment.

“That’s not because of differences in our DNA, because we have the same DNA,” Romney told his overwhelmingly white audience. “It’s because of those principles that made us so unique. These freedoms – political freedom, economic freedom, opportunity – we ought to restore those.”

He vowed to cut business taxes, streamline regulations and make better use of American energy sources.

Romney, who is on the second day of a three-day bus tour, is scheduled to speak later today in Mason City and Ames. He appears to be gaining momentum before Tuesday’s caucuses, taking the top spot in a new CNN poll and drawing large crowds in eastern Iowa. In Cedar Falls, his staff set up a white tent next door to the café to handle an extra 75 people who couldn’t squeeze into the main event. Romney went to the tent first to greet voters and make a few remarks before coming into the café.

Dennis Johnson, 53, of Cedar Falls, said that when he woke up Thursday, he was about 75 percent committed to supporting Romney. After hearing the candidate speak, he was sold.

“I just feel like he captures a lot of the spirit we read now,” Johnson said. Some other candidates, such as Newt Gingrich, Michele Bachmann and Ron Paul, are too polarizing, Johnson said. Romney, he said, “has the best chance of getting widespread support.”

Johnson, an information-technology specialist for the University of Northern Iowa, predicted that many Iowa Republicans will support Romney after spending months looking at all the candidates. “I think when it’s crunch time, people will realize the guy’s the real deal.”